MFAWG:Taima: Why would a German company design a bobsled for an American Olympic team?

IIRC, the sleds are pretty spec now.

Not at all. If you look at the front of a Eurotech sled (like the Canadians use), the nose and run up to where the pilot sits is much more rounded than the BMWs (or really the Bodyn before those). The Citius sleds that the Swiss use are kind of a combination of the two, where the point isn't as defined as in the BMW sleds, but is definitely there (and falls off the side a bit as well). Japan is working on a most flatter nosed sled that they debuted at the North American Cup race in Lake Placid this past March that's supposed to come in cost-wise around $15,000 (compared to the $40,000-$60,000 you'd pay for a Eurotech).

Really, aside from the type of material that you can use for the runners and things like that, every sled maker has their own thing about them.

So for instance, this is USA-2, a BMW: Compared to a Eurotech:Then a Citius (which, until the BMWs came out, were likely the fastest sleds out there):And then the Japanese sled, which is a total break from traditional aerodynamic sled design. I'm excited to see how it works out going forward for some of the smaller nations. Right now Heath Spence and the Aussie team is using a 6 year old Dresden or something like that because that's all he can afford.

One of my favorite things about jamiaca is in the montego bay airport, there is a bar called cool runnings, that has a bunch of tvs which just play that movie again and again on a loop, off of what I assume is a vhs player based on the worn out tracking.

While i love that movie, I have to think that the people working there must have committed the worst crimes possible in jamaica to be forced to watch it day in and day out.

Both modern versions of the sport originate from the same time (and same place, St. Moritz). That said, skeleton is far more fun to watch than luge. Of course, natural track luge is far and away more fun to watch than either, but it's not an Olympic sport, and is relegated to a few spots in eastern Europe.

Luge, Nodar Kumaritashvili. A luge sled is up higher than a skeleton sled, and the sliders hold themselves onto the skeleton sled a bit with their arms. The same hit off the final corner in skeleton likely would have just left with some bruises and not the "ejection" you saw with Kumaritashvili